Timeline

1890–1919 ∼ Striking it Rich

Indians massacred at Wounded Knee (1890) / Alaskan gold rush begins in 1897 a year after the discovery of gold in the Klondike; peaks the following year / Sixty percent of the country’s population lives in rural areas; ten percent of students graduate from high school (1900) / Spindletop oil plume gushes, and the Texas black gold rush begins (1901) / Henry Ford institutes the five-dollar day for his factory workers (1914)

Milestones:Plessy v. Ferguson declares it illegal for blacks to ride in the same railroad car as whites (1896) • Spanish American War (1898) • Chinese immigration banned except for diplomats, students, and merchants (1900) • Andrew Carnegie gives $350 million for social causes (1900–1919) • Lee De Forest invents the vacuum tube, essential to the development of electronics (1906)

1920–1929 ∼ Good Times

For the first time, more Americans live in urban areas than in rural ones...